CWG 2018 | Mirabai Chanu wins first Gold for India in 48 KG weightlifting
After the country woke up to the news of weightlifter Gururaja clinching his and India’s first medal (silver) at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, Mirabai Chanu doubled up the happiness later in the day. The 48 KG category weightlifter presented India their first gold medal of the 2018 Games.
Going into the tournament, Chanu was always the favorite, and although she was expected to be given a huge challenge by Mauritian weightlifter Marie Hanitra Roilya Ranaivosoa, the Indian made sure it was her day to outplay everyone.
Chanu started up the snatch event with a successful lift at 80 kg and then followed that up with an 84 kg lift in the second chance which helped her take a lead of 8 kgs, which was always going to be massive for anyone to come close. In the last attempt in the snatch, she had decided to go for 86 KG lift and to no one’s surprise, Chanu succeeded to top the table with a 10-kg lead before going into clean and jerk events. With the highest lift of 86 KG, the Manipuri broke the Commonwealth record three times today within the space of 6 minutes – with each of her lifts.
With a 10-kg lead in the snatch, Chanu had the comfort of going for lesser weights in the clean and jerk events, but that meant she would put her feet off the pedal and that's why instead of going for comfort, she decided to go all guns blazing. While she was firing on cylinders, her opponents made the competition further easier for her as there was hardly any competition apart from Mauritius' Marie Hanitra Roilya.
However, in search of setting up a new record, she attempted 107 KG and successfully managed to pull that up to showcase India's prowess. While many would have thought that she wouldn't compete in the final round as she was already the champion in the event, the Manipuri was thoroughly determined to go through the business and asked to go for a 110 KG in the final round of the clean and jerk event and the world just kept on applauding her strength and determination.